FROM THIS EPISODE

In the urge to cut government spending, states are reducing resources for public schools, including higher education. With China already past Great Britain in producing research, is the US investing enough to maintain its competitive edge in the global economy? Also, President Obama launches his 2012 re-election campaign and from Sarah Palin to organized labor, national interests are focused on tomorrow's election for a seat on Wisconsin's state supreme court. We find out why.

Banner image: Professor Shi Yigong, who walked away from a top research position in the US to become the dean of life sciences at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University in 2008, poses beside bottles of bacterial culture in a university lab in Beijing. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty
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A host of Republicans are so far reluctant to take the plunge in what could be the first billion-dollar political race in history. But their target kicked-off his own campaign today with emails to his supporters and a video testimonial from voters. Glenn Thrush is senior White House Reporter for Politico.

Wisconsin's new Republican Governor Scott Walker has galvanized the left as well as the right, and national interests on both sides have focused on tomorrow's election for the state supreme court. Conservative Justice David Prosser was expected to coast to re-election, but liberal JoAnne Kloppenburg has emerged as a serious challenger. Beyond that, there are so many campaigns to re-call legislators of both parties that the outcome presents potential consequences for political control of a battleground state in next year's presidential election. Craig Gilbert writes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

President Obama says the US has to "out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world," and industry leaders agree. However, while state after state challenges educators to produce a competitive workforce, they simultaneously cut spending from K through 12 to grad school. Meantime, the UK's Royal Society says China is producing enough research and trained professionals to "overtake the US in science" in two years. So why do Chinese parents do whatever they can to get their kids in to American schools? Does the US need education reform or more of the same?